‘Until Dawn’ Gets Thumbs Up From Gamers, Silence From Sony


Sony’s new interactive horror flick, Until Dawn, has finally been released and the opinion of the gaming world is that it was well worth the wait. Until Dawn follows a group of teenagers trapped in a remote ski lodge who are being stalked by a psychopathic murderer. If this sounds familiar, there’s a good reason for that. The game is a deliberate homage to the teen slasher genre, putting the player inside the kind of situation they would have merely watched in films like Scream or I Know What You Did Last Summer. And for those horror fans who think they could survive these situations better than the on-screen talent, Until Dawn provides the opportunity for them to put their money where their mouths are.

Until Dawn had a troubled history, with delays in production and a long wait for a firm release date. Since its announcement in 2012, there has been a steady decline in the mentions and promotion of Until Dawn from Sony, which some saw as an indication of declining faith on the part of the gaming giant, with memories of the almost universally panned The Order coming to the fore. The release itself was one of the quietest we have seen, especially for a big budget exclusive, with some gaming news sites like Endgadget positing that the game was being sent out into the world to die quietly.

But any jitters Sony might be feeling about Until Dawn have been unjustified. Reviews following the release have been overwhelmingly positive, especially when it comes to Until Dawn’s scripting, acting and “butterfly engine” story mechanic. Until Dawn is one of those rare games that shoots for “interactive movie” and doesn’t miss. The game puts you in control of a series of characters navigating between points of interest and busily interacting with each other. Seemingly trivial decisions and interactions have a cumulative and sometimes momentous effect and the sheer number of decisions reached through quicktime events lends tension and weight to the decision making. Complex and clever scripting makes sure that you are totally invested in the characters, which adds even further weight to the decisions the players have to make.

Probably one of the most effective and courageous features of Until Dawn is the save mechanic. There’s no real option to save at a critical point and play multiple branches in order to see what happens. When you make decisions, you’re mostly stuck with them until the game plays out. This makes a huge difference to the experience, combining with the excellent acting to create a feeling that your decisions will have real consequences.

Until Dawn is not a perfect game, with reviewers like Gamespot pointing to the lack of a free view mode and occasional failures in player control. Overall, however, Until Dawn looks like being an instant cult classic in the vein of Resident Evil, despite Sony’s misgivings.

[Image via Sony]

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